The Undefined Variable (MK)

[GEAR]

August 30th, OE 102
Mars Atmosphere Descent

"Cydonia. That's where you'll find what you're looking for."

Those were the words spoken by the Database, the artificial beings who seemed to be the first to fully grasp who, or rather what she really was.

The great "Face on Mars", it had once been known. A startling photograph that had once been said to be proof of civilization, but which after years had been determined to be nothing but an ordinary mount - a volcanic bubble on the planet's surface. Its mystery, a fluke... Or, so it had seemed. Once the Colonists from Earth had begun the noble, yet dirty work of turning the Red Planet's environment into something resembling amicable for human life, the problems had begun.

For as long as any could remember, the Cloud Stream had plagued the surface of Mars - a supposed unexpected side-effect of the terraforming process, or so it had been declared. At once limitless, exploitable resource and mysterious, terrifying phenomenon, its presence was both revered and cursed. Some even said it was the hand of God himself, protecting the people of Mars from those that would have subjugated them from the distant blue planet they had once called home. There was nowhere on Mars where the Stream was thickest, where it never seemed to abate, than Cydonia. To go there alone was a death sentence, to invite the reprisal of the cursed figures that walked in its shadows - some said, the dead returning for revenge, the "ghosts of Mars", shambling forth from their graves.

And yet...

As Remedy descended through the atmosphere, the orbital forces too busy fighting for their lives against a wholly different sort of problem, it was as if instinct guided her. The Getviewm seemed to welcome the arrival of the mist as it wafted up, like flying into a carpet, guiding her down, down to the planet's surface with little to no input from her. There were other shapes - half glimpsed mirages and forms that leered and peered at her from just out of sight... and then moved on, fading back into the dread mist from whence they came. There was no sense of fear, no doubt or anxiety, her steed guided itself gently, even as cliffs and ledges swung out at them without a single proximity alarm going off...

As if she had done all of this before.

Sure enough, the Enigma machine came to a halt, passing through the last of the thick fog, where the air had cleared such that she appeared to almost be within a dome - though whether it be by design or accident, none could say. All that was certain was what lay below:



Dark, metallic spires jutting up out of the face of the rock, sprouting forth like iron vines reaching for the heavens. Gouts of white fog spewed from great vents, a constant carpet that blanketed the soil from view. If it had indeed been a face, the Mesa would have appeared as if it were being torn asunder from the inside out, as though a mechanical seed had sprouted from its nose, spider-like legs stretching across its cheeks, lips, and forehead, as though whatever were within had been frozen at the moment of attempting to leap free of its fleshy prison like a B-grade horror monster.

Telltales winked across the super-structure's surface, dimly, faded lettering and broken, tattered spires indicating she was perhaps the first visitor this place had played host to...

In a long, long time.

 

[MKR]

A twisted nostalgia came to mind as she watched the descent. Jutting structures and stones feeling like no threat despite their proximity even as she descended in this fog where nothing could be seen with eyes or radar, where she for the first time in forever felt well and truly alone. Even here she was struck by an uncanny familiarity, comfort even, at the sight. It was peculiar, but perhaps exactly that was why this place seemed to welcome her as much as she did it. A place of certain doom. A one way ticket to a local hell, one would imagine it the most hostile place anywhere on or around the planet.

But no, outside there was a war at hand. Killing, violence. Things she admittedly had a distaste for but knew were only human nature. Here however, a calm serenity took hold of the environment, her eyes caught one of the mirages dashing about during her descent. A trick of the mind or observer, it mattered little currently. She wondered, with this nostalgia resting in her heart. What was this place to her. To them. The ones who knew her seemed ill inclined to share, perhaps that was part of the point. A place like this, a maze of fog and bent steel, it would kill those who didn't know where to go.

Those who didn't belong.

So to guide her here could be seen as a test, if she never returned then perhaps her 'informants' would know she had failed, undeserving of memory. So to her, that was what she needed to rely on. The thing she lacked but still felt was there her past and perhaps from here her future. With the Auto Pilot coming to an end she took control of the machine herself, gently pushing it forward like she took a stroll through her neighbourhood at night. Grasping the straws of memory that presented itself. This place, it may well be a white void in her mind and yet- yet amidst it all.

She had a feeling where to go, and thus she took that path and followed it. Calm breaths suddenly spiking up and up. An increasing rhythm thumping at her, a worry clawing at her mind. Was something in that void of memory causing this? This building dread, mounting on top of itself as she moved forward. She paused for a moment, looking around herself.

The lack of fog allowed her to see, to glance to search. For what she didn't know but she did know what she wouldn't gaze at. Irrational but still founded on a basis of rationale, impossible to remember but unable to forget. For whatever reason her mind screeched at her to not look down. What was there, what lurked beneath. She was curious but knew better than to peek. In this place where she had selected to let herself be guided by the phantoms of her own memory. That void still lurking beneath the surface. She would not slip on that. If that void told her to keep her gaze away from what was beneath then she would.

She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. Why was she worried to continue, what caused her to delay. She didn't know, yet at the same time somewhere, equal to that anxiety delaying her march. There was the... knowledge that answers were ahead of her like a sixth sense, a precognition perhaps pointing her forward.
'This is where your path has led you so far'.

And answers, that is why she came here. She could not return without them. An exhale, a smile.
That fear it was still there, the fear of forward was however, not the terror of below. That fear she had to overcome. Her eyes opened once more, and the controls were gripped. No more delay, it was time to go forward. Towards 'her'.

 

[GEAR]

The Getviewm's pilot let her instincts guide her, the Enigma Machine's twin tails fluttering out behind it as it drifted inward, moving between the spires and chimneys, down between the sundered chunks of metal. The Martian light dimmed, fading to an eerie twilight that filtered down through the fog, lit only by the occasional dull telltale. It was dreary, almost - nearly sleep inducing, from the way the darkness encroached about the eyes. Were her eyelids to flutter as she descended, a familiar sense of electricity would descend - a prickling on the back of the neck, the taste of metal at the back of her mouth-

---

[BEGIN PLAYBACK]

Sample Dated: [Pre-Collapse, temporal distortion prevents conventional labeling]
Sequence: Audio Recording, Collected Synapse Imprint
Stage of Hacceitic Degradation: 4
Treatment Plan: Active, Remedy-01
Subject: 52454d4544592d3031
Attachment:


"Who am I?

I'm me.

I'm me, I'm me, I'm me...

I must never let go of that thought. As soon as I do, I am lost. Like the rest.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. What nightmare have we brought upon ourselves?

Why?

Why can't I remember? Everything is fading away. No... Being erased. That's more appropriate. Worn away, gradually, like a husk under a grindstone.

Don't we have a right to exist? When a lifetime can be rubbed out, just like that? What I know is real. What I remember is real.

You can't just get rid of me. That's why the others look like that, right?

I want to live. I want to live... More than anything else..."

Suggested Course of Action: Disposal.

---

Awake, then. For how long had the Getviewm traveled? A scant five minutes had passed, but the Mobile Weapon's lights shone brightly, illuminating the gloom as its feet finally found solid footing. A dock of some kind, nestled on a ledge overlooking an even deeper crevice. It spiraled down, down into the thick darkness of the red planet's heart. Some parts of the structure around her were new, some was old - as if it had been added onto, and the current station she was standing on had been added later. Parts of it were rickety, but the power source seemed to, at least, be intact... Though for how much longer was uncertain.

Were she to look down below, perhaps trying to gauge the remaining depth, an unexplained sense of nausea, of hot and cold, would have swept through her body - but, something she could press on through if she so chose. The choice... Was hers.

 

[MKR]

She woke with a gasp, falling asleep at the helm. That was just poorly done from her, yet with what she slept. Remembered. Felt. That sleep, it was no random chance was it.

Her throat was dry, that memory it made her feel ill. Did she witness a report of her own murder in a way, but.. She was still her, she had lived. Survived through it all, and here she was. Whatever grindstone they had taken to her it had taken her memories but not herself. Yes that was it, wasn't it. Or was that but an excuse to herself to justify her presence here. An inhale followed by an exhale, the anxiety fueled her mindset which in turn fueled her anxiety back. Remedy herself was in the middle of this, painfully aware of it as it happened in real time.

As the Getviewm landed on solid ground, walking forward now instead of flying she herself also felt more grounded in turn. Those five minutes hadn't sent her adrift, she knew she had to know for sure. The memories of her past were awake during that time and they had brought her here. There was no need to worry over that memory yet, not when more answers were yet on her path. Her palm moved over her forehead, sweat coming with and glistening on her hand. Somewhere she wondered if this was no unique occurrence but a cycle.

A dance between her and whoever had taken her past. As she regained it and they robbed her of it. She begged that wasn't the case that once she had recovered herself that was that. For now however, she wouldn't stop. She had to continue for better or worse, if her memories were torture as she was cast apart bit by bit then let that be her past. She was her, all the good times and the bad. Today and tomorrow, yesterday and when those memories were robbed from her. She was still her.

Even if she were rend into two, she would die as her, if she would return triumphant she would live as her. The one thing that could not even be taken from her despite everything, was herself. Whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. That was for her to find out. Thus, as she did when she arrived here first. That belief in herself continued step by step she brought the Getviewm forward, closer to her memories. Guided by herself, her instincts. Anxiety and excitement, whether this journey would drag her into the deepest pits of mars or among the farthest stars yet remaining. In this moment she didn't care, she could only continue on the path she had put herself on.

So for now that companion who had been her for as long as she could remember, currently, would have to wait here. Her stride taking her outside of her machine, her own feet now carrying her with an affectionate pat on the machine's leg she stepped away from it and to the airlock which was more rust than steel now. Perhaps once it had been pristine but here, now? It was decrepit. One last check, her gun was on her person, the clothes on her back. Travel clothing instead of her uniform made things easier and just in case an emergency beacon. Though she doubted that it would do much here amidst the fog it was still a piece of comfort as if to say 'help can be on the way if I wish it to'.

A gaze went to the door, to Getviewm. And with a push the rust caved and granted her passage.

 

[GEAR]

A push and a shove, and she was through. Immediately, the scent of the place hit her - dust, stale, dry air, and... the faint undertones of burning ozone. At least here she was safe from the whistling of the wind, reduced to a distant clatter as unstable, aging armored plates rattled against what few bolts remained. The fact that the air was breathable alone must have been nothing short of a miracle - though the presence of green shoots erupting through the floors, ivy-like plants that crawled up cracked columns and across the walls, showed something was living here.

Closer inspection, were she to look at the leaves as she passed, would reveal... an unusual glimmer. Parts of it were... clear. Scratchy, almost, as if filled with a kind of static that hurt the eye to look at. Her fingers, if she were to touch these strange pieces, would pass right through - but would be left cold, as though she had dipped her fingers in a bucket of ice.

It wasn't just the plants either.



As she moved through the industrial, dilapidated interior, parts of the floor, parts of the ceiling and walls - were afflicted with the same kind of phenomenon. Sometimes in splotches no bigger than her fingertip, sometimes almost as tall as she was, impeding her path. Nevertheless, with some effort she made her way forward, and eventually arrived at an impasse. Through faded signs and maps, she was able to make out several possible locations for her search:

^ Command Center
-> Server Maintenance
<- B1F Laboratory & Holding Cells
<- Greenhouse
-> Dormitory

The question was... Which one?

 

[MKR]

Remedy moved through the halls, the musky air hitting her in waves as she moved from point to point. Even if it seemed something had managed to live inside here, plants no matter how diminished were still proof of life in their own way, except why did it hurt to look at these plants. She blinked, adjusting her eyes to the world but still it hurt. Like watching an old TV for hours on end, watching the snow fall on the channel that didn't broadcast. She sought to touch the plant, as if to verify its existence to herself more than anyone else.

Only for it to pass through, her hand retracting at lightning speeds as her eyes widened. She shook it as if to remove freezing water from her fingertips but no, this was no plant drenched in ice. It... It was like her memory, there but not quite. Perhaps it was her memory even, brought into reality between the cusp of being remembered and forgotten. She calmed her rapid breaths, she needed to press onwards. Keep her eyes on the walls and floors. Didn't want to fall through a hole of not quite floor but not quite not floor.

It wasn't just the plants as she feared, the structure itself seemed to be in the process of being forgotten, or being remembered. It was a painful sight to watch walls exist between themselves and nothing. Was she feeling pity on a building? Yes, for she knew the pain. And while a building was no person this proved that it was still something aiming to attain itself. If a tree falls in the woods does it make a sound, a question as old as time. But perhaps now, if a tree falls in the woods and no one could remember it standing. Did it ever stand?

Step by step she was carried further, instinct no longer acting as her tour guide but that was fine. It had brought her this far, contemplating her options she turned right, down the passage which led to the Server Maintenance section of the building. Each of the ones accessible to her had its own merits but here she could perhaps find logs of all the others, commands issued, records of who lived in the dorms. What all happened in the laboratory and then from there find another route to go down. That and with the unknown energy remaining going to the facility which for sure required its function was a priority.

 

[GEAR]

Remedy's feet carried her towards the Server Maintenance room, through halls with yellowed peeling paint and frayed, jittering lights. Bare rock was visible through the static-flecked patches in the walls, evidence that this particular section had been carved directly into the Martian rock itself. The server room itself was as antiquated as she could expect - piles of electronics couched in cracked, sometimes melted cradles. With a little effort, and a little moving of cables about however, she was able to bring some of the devices back online, a reassuring chirp the reward of her actions.

In addition, as she worked the dust off her fingers, her gaze might have fallen on a monitor in the far corner of the room. Though long out of use, if powered on, the words now burned into its screen were visible for all to see:

Final Summary of "Remedy Sequence" Test Subjects:

R-01: Disposed Note: Retrieved per Administrator override.
R-02: Self-Disposed
R-03: Recovered Relapsed, Self-disposed.
R-04: Escaped, search ongoing. Self-disposed.
R-05: Uncertain condition. Sealed in Laboratory for further observation.

Further trial runs are halted on humanitarian grounds per the Administrator.
Update: Project placed on indefinite suspension until further notice.

Momentarily, the roaring of the wind outside seemed to grow louder, fiercer, rattling the exterior of the complex even harder than it had been before - but, there was still time.

 

[MKR]

She scurried over the various screens, eyes on every direction. Every screen to spot anything. Almost stumbling over the cables strewn about the room when she caught eye of that one screen in the corner of the room. She read the information displayed, mumbling along with the information presented as her eyes narrowed. R-01. That memory. Her throat became dry as the words 'self disposed' came into view over and over.

Did that mean suicide? A self termination in response to what, a relapse for one perhaps or perhaps going through this again. The howling wind rattled her, causing her gaze to go aside and narrow. There was one on there who didn't self dispose, one besides R-01. One besides what she believed to be herself.
She had to see it, her? for herself. Pushed onwards by the wind, by the shaking foundations of the facility she rushed out of the door she came here from. No longer on a casual pace guided by instinct but a sprint guided by.... Tomorrow. Yesterday.

She had to see this, she had to see R-05 or maybe what remained. In this place where she felt the most alone she ever had, without her by her side without herself there with her. Without the Masyaf. She needed to be there, there where another was in this pit of hell. Maybe there was still time, but she didn't know how much time and to waste a second of that time when her past was so precious to her. She could never allow that.

So she carried herself downwards, to the Labratory below.

 

[GEAR]

Remedy stepped out into the corridor, thoughts swirling in her mind. The pieces were starting to come together, but the picture remained incomplete. As she moved into the hallway however, there might have been something to give her pause, reaching her ears as she rounded the corner.

A sound. Rhythmic. Heavy.

Tmp. Tmp. Tmp.

Footsteps.​

Slow. Purposeful. Echoing towards her from the direction of the Airlock. While the owner hadn't managed to materialize yet... It raised the question:

Who could possibly have followed her? Or, was it the owner of this place, come to uproot an interloper?

A split second decision was needed: Fight... Or flight?

---

OOC: Per MK's given input

Remedy darted out into the open, her feet carrying her lightly towards her destination even as the footsteps in the distance grew louder. She pulled open the double doors to the lab and slipped in, leaving them slightly ajar behind her. The noise paused as she flattened herself against the interior wall, her breath coming out before her in puffs of white as a chill gripped her body. The seconds ticked by... and eventually, the footsteps receded into the distance, though in what direction was not immediately identifiable.

Likely breathing a sigh of relief, Remedy moved on, creeping forward down a dimly lit staircase. The walls were frigid and wet to the touch with condensation, and the ever present whine of machinery mixed with the scent of preservatives and rot as she slipped through a second, interior set of doors... and walked into the laboratory.



Here, the cold was bone-biting. Tall, whirring machines to her immediate left loomed high, clearly responsible for keeping the place at optimum temperature. Despite this, the opposite wall held row upon row of storage vessels and cabinets, yellowed with age, clouded with frost or clustered with black, tar-like residue, whatever chemical components used to preserve precious specimens having long since worn out its function. In the rear was an aperture leading to, presumably, the holding cells, but in the center of the room, sunken into the floor, was a light.

Rather, a prism of light, formed from emitters placed at equidistant points into the floor, reaching all the way to the ceiling where a matching set beamed the same wall of verdant-hued substance to its opposite number. A plate at her feet, once cleared of frost, would have helpfully read:

R-05 CONTAINMENT CELL
DANGER: HAECCEITIC HAZARD

​

Within, the shimmering mass from before was present - but in a whole new state. It sloshed up against the sides of its prison, clinging to the walls, shifting shape - like a cluster of static that hurt the eyes to behold... and indeed, it wasn't easy to make out from afar. At least for the moment, it did not seem to react to Remedy's presence, for better or worse... As there was a great deal for her to take in before regarding it.

 

[MKR]

With the fading noise a sigh of relief came from the woman, she couldn't tell where the other went but that meant it wasn't towards her. Given she had made ample noise on her way here it meant that either they were deaf or undesiring perhaps even incapable of interaction with her. Now, with her heart no longer racing the cold finally got her notice. Her coat was brought in some more, hugging her form as she stepped forward.

One thing drew her eyes immediately, opposite to her was something which brought pain to her eyes once more. Except this time much larger and... Was it humanoid? The plate, one small brush of her boot later revealed to her that that.... Mass was what drove her to rush here. A gulp came down her throat as she beheld R-05 or what seemed to be it. Perhaps what remained of it.
She needed to calm herself one thing at a time, take in her surroundings first. Containment cells, some hurting her eyes more than others and one simply barren. Likely the place where the other Rs were held, yet if that were so then why did this place not illicit a memory from her, nothing about this... Nothing about any of this brought any sense of familiarity with it.

Her gaze moved upwards, a second floor with similar glass. Frosted over, moving back down an airduct close to the holding cells. She stepped closer to it, only for the surprisingly fresh scent to hit her. The greenhouse? As her eyes passed back over the cells, she noticed something in the empty cell. Markings, over and over. Tracking of time, how long? Her eyes dashed back and forth. A year, or close to it it seemed. Or perhaps they were tallies of years? That would be a true horror.

This, had not helped put her mind at ease so she had to push forward all the same. Calmly, almost cautiously she approached the thing in the tube. 'Haeccitic' a word that seemed to chase her across the cosmos. Or perhaps she unknowingly had followed it here. The plants, her memories, what. No who was inside the tube they were all connected through this. But one phrase stuck by her.

Uncertain Condition.

For all the bad things that implied, it meant that they hadn't suffered the same fate as the others. Neither recovered nor disposed, lost nor found. Of all the things she dreaded, being alone was there. Well and truly alone. Were they the same perhaps, she inhaled.
"Are you there?" She spoke, calmly. Stepping forwards slightly towards the tube.

"I'm here with you." It hurt her eyes but she shouldn't look away, even if nothing she said got through still she shouldn't look away and betray any possibility of trust far fetched though it may be. Still she could see those traces of humanoid features, like a glimmer in the light. She stretched her hand out as she proceeded apace. Offering it to take even if they were still far apart.

"Are you here with me?"

 

[GEAR]

As Remedy drew close to the tank, the minutes ticked by during her search. Had her pursuer given up the chase? The answer came as she moved towards the tank, as the floor began to tremble underfoot. The lights flickered crazily - and then went out, as a riproaring, only slightly muffled boom rang through the complex. Dust and smoke washed into the room from behind her, the scent of ancient decay and burning debris almost nauseating in its intensity as it swirled about.

After a few seconds, red emergency lights flickered on. The barrier, it seemed, ran on a different power source altogether. At the very least, the horrid cold in the room was starting to recede, the emergency power clearly not extending to the cooling systems, as frost began to melt into grimy condensation on the nearby surfaces.

The figure within the tank - 05 - reacted to her voice. It drifted closer - mimicking her movements, its contours distorting and flickering.

As if it were trying to be her.

But, as it began to approximate her more closely - suddenly it stiffened - and withdrew sharply to the other side of the tank, collapsing upon itself as it began to quiver terribly, whatever composure it had started to gain deteriorating in an instant.

The cause was immediately apparent.

"Sad, isn't it?"

Tmp. Tmp. Tmp.​

A voice came from behind Remedy... and with it, a flurry of emotion.

There was something there. A kind of white noise at the back of her mind, unpleasant, the metallic taste of blood at the back of her throat, of a phantom chill running down the back of her neck.

The same sensation as that day, when atomic fire had scourged hundreds of thousands of lives from the starts in an instant. When her enemy had revealed itself to her - a cold, calculating, cerebral intellect that held her mind in its grip, as though preparing it for dissection.

"Once, the very fabric of reality was their plaything. And now... This is all that remains. A dissolving wreck, rejected by reality."

And yet at the same time, the voice was instantly recognizable. A hand pushed through the plastic covering to the room like a sloughed off cape, a black longcoat concealing most of its body, but the smoking, double-barreled shotgun gripped loosely in its right hand, which was carried as easily and lightly as if it were a part of their own body. Those measured, purposeful steps from dark, short-heeled boots stopped, as two identical pairs of eyes met.




Her, and yet not her. A mirror, darkly.

The Black X, smiled at Remedy... but only with her mouth.

"Hello, sister." She said, in a voice that carried all of the right notes, yet with none of the warmth of its origins.

"Did you find what you were looking for?"​

 

[MKR]

As the static recoiled Remedy turned around, her grip hovering around the pistol on her waist. That face, that voice it was a surprise to see them here, like this. An insurmountable difference in the minutia had formed even if the two looked alike she couldn't recognize the figure opposite as 'her'. But still, innately, intimately, she knew who that person opposite to her was.

"Huh, didn't think AM had so much fashion sense." She muttered to herself, loudly enough however for her double to hear. Purposefully at that a meaningful prod disguised as a remark for she had a feeling who was tugging the strings behind her eyes. "It's nice to see you again, after all these months."
Her eyes momentarily moved to the thing behind them, the one who had lost their shape. R-05, she had noticed its efforts.

And as she could not feel the one in front of her as 'her' anymore, she inhaled. While her eyes focused on the mirror image her thoughts reached out, backwards. To the once shape lurking in the corner in fear, while no literal hands were extended that one was, she felt its fear. Shared it even but still she stood opposite to this funhouse mirror reflection.

It was an invitation to stand with her, as one. She didn't know if these thoughts would reach but she had to leave them there all the same, hoping that R-05 would accept.

"I do think its admirable, that its still standing despite everything." With the hand not close to the gun she gestured around a bit. "Even if it is a shade of what it used to be the tenacity is admirable as it continues to exist long past when it was due. Even if it seems to have caused some trouble in the meanwhile." Her hand gestured towards her mirror image for the shortest time before moving back to a calm position.

"And really you should know that if you're a bit like me." She finally answered the question with a coy smile. "And if you want the answer well, I think you know better than I do at this point what you have to do to get them from me. But what about you, not just here to mock the architecture and shoot it I take it?"

 

[GEAR]

"You don't even know who you are."

The eyes.

As her doppelganger listened, there was something unusual about them. A kind of... opacity. A hollowness, to how she looked, as if it were nothing more than a doll passively registering her bravado. The flatness of her reply. It was like her, but at the same time an entirely alien thought process. One that viewed the world in an entirely different light. As Remedy asked for the purpose of her being here, X once again smiled.

"Do you know what this place is?" She said, pleasantly.

"...The residents of Deimos, the Database, constructed this facility to fulfill their purpose: To restore the once-great Ur-Human civilization.

Every individual soul, every consciousness of humanity... compressed, archived, and stored away. Just in case."

She took a step forward, moving up alongside the tank. The exit was just barely visible over her shoulder, though what condition the hallway was in after the explosion was anyone's guess. Her tone was... clinical, analytical, as if a teacher explaining to a promising, yet stubborn pupil.

"Such a feat had never been attempted before. They proceeded with appropriate caution. A random entry - a young girl, who had lived a perfectly ordinary life, was selected to be their test subject.

But... They soon ran into a problem."

At this, X's head lolled sideways, indicating 05 in the tank - who shrunk even further back from the newcomer in vivid terror. X watched the reaction with mild interest, as if documenting it for later examination, before continuing:

"A metaphysical breakdown. Conceptual. Existential. Each successive copy degrading faster than those that came before it. All the Dimensional Power in the collected universe couldn't correct it. So... They sealed it away. Salvaged what they could."

A twinge of something dripped into her voice. Was it... envy? Admiration, somehow? Before her eyes turned back to her "sister", a knowing twinkle in their depths.

"Great was the bounty they reaped from the harvest of human suffering."

 

[MKR]

"Hmph." Remedy responded to the statement of a fact "I know I'm me." that statement, she did keep quiet for herself. As her double passed by her she gave her room, keeping her eyes on the duplicate but now having both the others in this room in sight. She felt sad for the mass in the corner, seemingly unwilling or unable to rise above that fear. She couldn't blame them, quite the opposite she understood them.

But even as she felt the fear of a true loneliness which could only come when faced with someone distant from you yet there with you, as your only tether to the outside. She had to stand strong. She hadn't come this far to be carried away by fear of herself. Even if those eyes, those hollow eyes would haunt her nights for years to come.

She shuddered at the explanation, while it wasn't 'her' that was there with the braincase 'she' still felt exactly what 'she' had endured from the comfort of Getviewm, as her self was attempted to be shattered. She wondered if the braincase had succeeded then and there would that have been her looking down at R-05 now. As those eyes returned to her she felt the brick in her throat once more. The uncanny valley was perhaps appropriate, not in a physical sense no there everything was right.

But instead, in the sense beyond that. Knowing that there should be a feeling of warmth from her peer but instead being faced with the infinite cold of space behind those words. "A girl huh." As everything was explained pieces fell into place, not through memories as before but through reconstructing the past. Taken with a grain of salt as it had to be done. Still with the words of the database on the side, both sides essentially conveying the same message.

"I'm... not going to defend these place or those practices. If you're still remotely like me then you know how much I loathe that sort of suffering. Even if it lead to things I would be grateful for." She stepped forward, the hand not ready to go at any time being placed on the glass as she gazed through it. "Everywhere I go. Everyone I ask that might know, it always sends me on the next step of this scavenger hunt."

"Even... Well." Her gaze went momentarily away from the double before returning.
She chuckled to herself, mostly to keep the fear away.
"Even my past seems to play coy with me instead of simply telling me."

It was like no one wanted to deny her her answers, but no one wanted to give them either.
Like they were a right to be earned, somehow she hadn't done that.

"Honestly, seeing your eyes. I hate them by the way, but seeing them made me question, why do you perpetuate this. And I think I know- but I want you to say it."
She was painfully aware that the girl besides her wasn't 'her'. It should be 'her' but it was another and that was it wasn't it, she was already too different. Because she wasn't her whatever it was didn't work. What other reason was there to not blast her in the back with that gun. Same way Apple Eve didn't blast the 'her' inside the Tantra until that attempt had failed. Only then was that volley fired at her.

Her hand slowly slid down the one sided glass of the container. Turning towards the double.
"And if you're going to say that I have to find out 'myself' then your looks give me enough of an excuse."

A playful jab but... she was terrified. Of what potential answer could come if she was wrong.

 

[GEAR]

As Remedy spoke, X didn't interrupt. She listened, absorbing every word, seeming almost... pleased at the words coming out of her life. As if her thirst for knowledge, for truth, was in its own way deeply satisfying. Nothing about her changed, but it seemed as if some kind of switch had been flipped.

"Yes. You're right." She said. As she did, her lips curled up past her teeth, morphing into a slow, horrible, grin of pure malice.

"I will give you the answers you seek. Every one. I will strip you bare of every comforting lie, like peeling the flesh from your body. Until you are bloody, and screaming for it to end. I... will not permit you the protection of ignorance. The shield of ambiguity."

Something was oozing into her breath, the fixated way she stared at her, a bizarre mixture of obsession and absolute hatred, barely contained behind what seemed to be rigid, unmoving bars of will, like a tiger prowling back and forth in its cage.

"And then, Remedy?" She said, stepping forward, so that the two of them were close, her voice dropping into a soft, intimate whisper that was as touching as velvet... but keen as a razor's edge. The rattling of her breath was audible, the subtle way excitement seemed to charge through her body.

"You... will die."

And finally, she laughed. It was slow, and halting chuckle. As though it was not natural, and was something she had needed to have explained to her, slowly and carefully.

"Do not be afraid." She continued, softly.

"I will be there with you. Right until the bitter end. We will see together. Pain, in itself... will be comforting proof you are still alive."

Overhead, there was a terrible, thunderous crunch. As if something massive were adjusting its weight, or had landed on the building. X paid it no heed, only shouldering her firearm. Cracks ran through the ceiling.

"Now... Let us go." Said X, coolly.

"To the dark depths that fear drives us from. To see... where it all began. And where... it will end."

What happened next was almost surreal. It was like something out of a horror film, she might later, briefly recall. The way a massive, thunderous fist plunged through the roof, spinning like a turbine, tearing through the floor, through the building, sending them falling, falling through the air down, down into the abyss below. The way the floor gave way beneath her feet like quicksand.

The way that 05, as her prison shattered, seemed to look to her desperately, trying to form words that had been gone for a long, long time, before dissolving completely into the sunlight.

The way X stared, unflinchingly, even as ruin fell upon her, with her dread promise of truth, as the darkness swallowed them.